


Sweet

by DollyPop



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, Canon Related, F/M, First Kiss, Kissing, Pre-Canon, Teen Romance, Teen Years, Teenagers, The Pocky Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 23:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6928714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyPop/pseuds/DollyPop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Well, wouldn’t you want to know for sure? It’ll be just like an experiment, right?”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet

 

“Why?” is all he asks her, which she supposes is progress, considering it was better than when Spirit first introduced the game. In hindsight, slyly handing Stein a box and telling him to “Get some ass,” whilst looking at her was probably a terrible idea, and the resulting glare and the gleam of a scalpel that had Spirit running for cover behind Kami was absolutely justified, in her eyes.

Regardless, Marie was caught off guard with the question. Stupid or no, Spirit presented one of the best opportunities she’d have for a while, and, damn it all, she really did want to play that game with him. “Well. . .I. . .we don’t wanna be. . .left out?”

That wasn’t exactly a lie. But it wasn’t the total truth, either, which she assumed he could tell. He lifted a brow, his deadpan expression unamused, though not closed off. “I don’t mind being ‘left out’.”

Marie swallowed, sure that she was starting to go a little pink in the face. “It’ll be fun, Franken!” she said, still trying to avoid the real reason: she just wanted to kiss him. Or, at least, get as close to it as she could.

But she couldn’t tell him that, he’d probably maniacally laugh her out of existence. Besides which, he had only recently started to warm up to her as his partner, she didn’t want to compromise that. Stupid Spirit, introducing the game. Stupid Azusa, for telling her she should go for it. Stupid Kami for making that comment about how Stein would never fall for it. Marie looked over Stein’s shoulder, lifting a hand to play with her pigtails.

“It doesn’t strike me as fun. It seems messy.”

Behind Stein, Marie spotted Spirit making kissy faces at them, Kami being held back by a sighing Sid. Marie could only barely prevent a mortified expression.

“Well, wouldn’t you want to know for sure? It’ll be just like an experiment, right?” she asked gently, meeting his olive eyes with her golden one, blinking up at him with a nervous smile tugging at her lips. At that, he actually looked interested. Curiosity would get him every time, and she knew that he believed in doing, as opposed to theory. His impassive face smoothed out after a second before he nodded.

“An experiment? Alright.”

“Really!?” she asked, the flush under her cheeks probably even more prominent against the white of her eyepatch. She coughed, realizing how eager she sounded.

He only hummed, looking at her with something amused in his eyes, but she was busy staring down at the box in her hands, fidgeting. “I don’t know all the rules, however,” he told her, reaching for the box before he took note of the picture on it, the coating on the biscuit a sickly pink color. He made a face, bringing his hand back to his side. “That looks disgusting.”

“It isn’t so bad!” she defended immediately.

He blinked at her, waiting for more. Her eyebrows met in confusion, unknowing of why he was so silent all of a sudden.

“Franken?”

He sighed. “How do you play, Marie?” he asked, somewhat impatient, and she almost dropped the box. Oh, right, she’d totally forgotten his original comment about not knowing the rules.

She took a deep breath in, avoiding his gaze as she pulled a pocky stick out. After a moment of consideration, she decided that she would take the strawberry coated end so he would be spared some of the sickly sweetness. “Well. . .each person bites down on their end until there’s. . .nothing left.” Marie was glad she had an excuse not to look at him in that moment.

“That sounds stupid,” he commented. Marie bit down on her nervous giggles.

“It’s a little silly,” she conceded, “but it’s fun!”

“So you’ve said,” he replied. There was a single moment of awkward silence, and Marie was doing everything she could to avoid looking at the gaggle of friends collected behind Stein before she swallowed once more and looked at him.

“Do you want me to start?”

“Isn’t the point for it to be simultaneous?”

Marie did nothing but nod, chewing on her inner cheek for a moment before she placed her lips around the coated end, temped to close her eye immediately when he had to bend down, not by much, considering he still hadn’t hit his growth spurt, but enough so that the stick was angled up in his direction.

She forced back her squeak, instead, finding that their gazes were locked: Stein’s impassive and almost clinical, and her own, she was sure, embarrassed. She was frozen, amazed that she was in that position with him. She was tempted to pinch herself, to make sure she really was experiencing reality. Her stupor was broken, however, when he bit down first, chewing on the cookie for a second before biting again, and Marie had to rush to catch up.

She flicked her gaze to his mouth, focusing intently on when he bit down and synchronizing her own to match him. With their eyes not staring into one another’s, she found that she could pay better attention. But she was surprised to find that it didn’t take much at all, almost as though they were in a low level of resonance. If her own heartbeat wasn’t pounding in her ears, she thinks she might have been able to hear his own thudding at the same pace. It was a silly idea, considering all she’d likely hear was Spirit cheering under his breath and Kami practically breathing fire, but she was so focused on Stein in that moment, in not reaching out to cup the back of his head or run her palm down his arm, that she was tuned out to everything else.

After only a second, Marie found that she was going cross-eyed from how close his face was getting to her own as the sweet got shorter and shorter, so she fluttered her eye shut, her stomach flipping when she heard another soft crunch and suddenly, there was nothing between them at all. She’d been leaning up to meet him, and he’d been stooping so that her smaller frame was accommodated, and she had the urge to throw her arms around his neck when they met. Her lips found his, warm, chapped, and dry in a chaste, closed-mouth kiss.

It was the barest touch, just a brush, but she gasped so suddenly at the action that she found his upper lip in her mouth, and that was too much. She reared back, her heart a hammer ready to break her sternum open. If it wasn’t for his arm suddenly coming behind her and stopping her backpedal, she likely would have ended up on her rear in the dirt, but his touch disappeared the instant she was stabilized.

When her eye snapped open, she found his already focused on her, and he licked his upper lip, taking in the taste of the pocky almost without thinking about it. She stared at the motion, bringing the flesh of her own lip between her teeth. Her face felt hot, and so did her neck and shoulders and, actually, everything was suddenly so much warmer than before. Stein looked calm, a stark antithesis to the fluttering, bubbly feeling in her stomach.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, paying no attention to the commotion behind him as their friends freaked out. Marie’s lower lip was dropped, and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, all she would do was stutter, so she just nodded, a squeaking “Mmhm!” popping out, so high in pitch she wanted to cringe. His usual deadpan expression was still slapped on his face, but if she looked closely, she would be able to make out just the barest tug at the corner of his lips.

“It wasn’t so bad,” he told her, and she could have sworn his eyes gleamed. Something inside of her chest popped, she felt fizzy and giddy and like jumping in place, but she didn’t want to leap to conclusions.

If he meant the kiss, (did he mean the kiss? Oh, Death, why did he insist on ambiguity?) she was more than willing to try again with him.


End file.
